I think with the pioneering idea of the PokeBank, the future seems obvious: Nintendo's going to handwave any technical problems with their device by expanding cloud synching for pretty much everything.

From what I've read of both Nintendo and Gamefreak, though, they seem like very old dogs learning new tricks at a snail's pace. Clearly, they can't be Google, Amazon or even Activision, but re-engineering the Switch seems too risky in a world where Japanese content creators feel immensely pressured by mobile gaming. Take this Junichi Matsuda quote on why BF was excluded from ORAS:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Junichi Matsuda

[we wanted] a "balanced" game that was suited for our time and age, where everyone is very busy and young people have various means of entertainment. Using smartphones and other devices they can access a great number of games, so the time they dedicate to a single game is less than in the past.

In the smartphone world, Samsung is releasing a high-end platform every year, as well as 2-3 mid-range platforms, all of which are capable of playing the same games. Nintendo couldn't even meet demand for its freaking NES Classic. If you're going to see a life raft, it'll be in the form of software or server access.